Demolition set for downtown Spring Valley

SPRING VALLEY Demolition activity is about to take place in Spring Valleys downtown area.

On Monday, the city council approved a bid price of $132,500 to tear down the city-owned buildings at 124, 200 and 202 E. St. Paul St.

American Demolition of Elgin will be doing the work. The cost of demolition will come out of the citys TIF fund.

City engineer Larry Good explained how the job would include cleaning out the basements of the buildings; the walls of the buildings would then be torn down, and contractors would back-fill in the area with gravel and bring it up to existing grade to match the surroundings. Whats expected to be left behind is three gravel vacant lots.

Looking at the bid price, Alderman Dave Pelligrini questioned what sort of future work would need to be made to the empty lots.

At a point were looking at $132,500 and you know beyond that what are we looking at? Pelligrini asked.

That prompted the question of what would be the future use of the three vacant lots.

Are we going to market them? I dont want to leave them in a bad way because we wont sell them, Pelligrini said. Someone has to dump a lot of expense in there, or else theyre just going to sit there.

Alderman Dan McFadden, who abstained from the bid vote due to living within the TIF district, talked about improvements that would need to be made to the lots to make them attractive to a future buyer. He also expressed concerns with rainwater running down into the empty lots and washing gravel onto the sidewalks and streets.

Good assured he didnt anticipate any problems with gravel washing away from the area, but aldermen agreed they wouldnt know what to expect until it happens.

Excerpt from:
Demolition set for downtown Spring Valley